Polled by Gallup as one of the most popular first ladies,[1] Laura Bush was involved in both national and global concerns during her tenure. She continued to advance her trademark interests of education and literacy by establishing the semi-annual National Book Festival in 2001 and encouraged education on a worldwide scale. She also advanced women's causes through The Heart Truth and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She represented the United States during her foreign trips, which tended to focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria awareness. In May 2010, Bush released her memoir, Spoken from the Heart, in conjunction with a national tour.

Early life and career

Laura Lane Welch was born in Midland, Texas, the only child of Harold Welch (1912–1995) and Jenna Louise Hawkins Welch (born 1919).[2] Her father was a home builder and later successful real estate developer[3] while her mother worked as the bookkeeper for her father's business.[2] Early on, her parents encouraged her to read, leading to what would become her love of reading.[2] She said, "I learned [how important reading is] at home from my mother. When I was a little girl, my mother would read stories to me. I have loved books and going to the library ever since. In the summer, I liked to spend afternoons reading in the library. I enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie books and Little Women, and many others... Reading gives you enjoyment throughout your life."[4]

On the night of November 6, 1963, Laura Welch ran a stop sign, causing a fatal car accident that killed her friend in another car.[8][9] The driver of the other car was her close friend and classmate Michael Dutton Douglas. By some accounts, he had been Welch's boyfriend at one time.[10] Welch and her passenger, both 17, were treated for minor injuries.[11] According to the accident report released by the city of Midland in 2000, in response to an open-records request, she was not charged in the incident.[11][12] Bush's spokesman said, "It was a very tragic accident that deeply affected the families and was very painful for all involved, including the community at large."[11] In her book Spoken from the Heart, she says that the accident caused her to lose her faith "for many, many years".[13]

Marriage and family

She met George W. Bush in July 1977 when mutual friends John and Jan O'Neill invited her and Bush to a backyard barbecue at their home. He proposed to her at the end of September and they were married on November 5 of that year[14][15] at the First United Methodist Church in Midland, the same church in which she had been baptized.[16] Laura bought a tan, two-toned dress off the rack for the wedding.[17] The couple honeymooned in Cozumel, Mexico.[14]

The year after their marriage, the couple began campaigning for George W. Bush's 1978 Congressional candidacy. According to George Bush, when he asked her to marry him, she had said, "Yes. But only if you promise me that I'll never have to make a campaign speech."[18] She soon relented, and gave her first stump speech for him in 1978 on the courthouse steps in Muleshoe, Texas.[19] After narrowly winning the primary, he lost the general election.[15]

The Bushes had tried to conceive for three years, but pregnancy did not happen easily. On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna.[16] The twins were born five weeks early by an emergency Caesarean section, as Laura had developed life-threatening pre-eclampsia (toxemia).[15] The twins graduated from high school in 2000 and attended Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively, in 2004. To date, Bush is the only First Lady to have given birth to twins.

George W. Bush credited his wife with his decision to stop drinking in 1986.[7][20] She is also credited with having a stabilizing effect on his private life.[15] According to People magazine reporter Jane Simms Podesta, "She is the steel in his back. She is a civilizing influence on him. I think she built him, in many ways, into the person he is today."[15]

Several times a year, Bush and her husband travel to their sprawling family estate, the Bush compound, better known as Walker's Point. Located in Kennebunkport, Maine, the compound is where Bush family gatherings have been held for nearly 100 years.

First Lady of Texas

Bush became the First Lady of Texas when her husband was elected as the Governor of Texas and served as first lady of that state from January 17, 1995, to December 21, 2000.[21] When asked about her interest in politics, she responded, "It doesn't drive me."[22]

Though during her years in the Governor's Mansion, she did not hold a single formal event,[23] Laura worked for women's and children's causes including health, education, and literacy.[21] She implemented four major initiatives: Take Time For Kids, an awareness campaign to educate parents and caregivers on parenting; family literacy, through cooperation with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, she urged Texas communities to establish family literacy programs; Reach Out and Read, a pediatric reading program; and Ready to Read, an early childhood educational program.[21]

Her husband announced his campaign for President of the United States in mid-1999, something that she agreed to. She did say, however, that she had never dreamed that he would run for office.[22] In July, she delivered a keynote address to the delegates at the 2000 Republican National Convention, which put her on the national stage.[18][25] In December 2000, her husband resigned as Governor of Texas to prepare for his inauguration as President of the United States in January 2001.

First Lady of the United States

Official portrait of Laura Bush

As First Lady, Bush was involved in issues of concern to children and women, both nationally and internationally.[26] Her major initiatives included education and women's health.[26]

Education and children

Romanian children greet President and Mrs. Bush upon their landing in Bucharest, 2002

Early into the administration, Bush made it known that she would focus much of her attention on education. This included recruiting highly qualified teachers to ensure that young children would be taught well.[27] She also focused on early child development.[27] In 2001, to promote reading and education, she partnered with the Library of Congress to launch the annual National Book Festival. To promote American patriotic heritage in schools, she helped launch the National Anthem Project.

"[W]e need to reassure our children that they are safe in their homes and schools. We need to reassure them that many people love them and care for them, and that while there are some bad people in the world, there are many more good people."[28]

The following day, she composed open letters to America's families, focusing on elementary and middle school students, which she distributed through state education officials.[29][30] She took an interest in mitigating the emotional effects of the attacks on children, particularly the disturbing images repeatedly replayed on television.[31] On the one-year anniversary, she encouraged parents to instead read to their children, and perhaps light a candle in memoriam, saying, "Don't let your children see the images, especially on September 11, when you know it'll probably be on television again and again — the plane hitting the building or the buildings falling."[31]

Later in her tenure, she was honored by the United Nations, as the body named her honorary ambassador for the United Nations' Decade of Literacy. In this position, she announced that she would host a Conference on Global Literacy.[32] The conference, held in September 2006, encouraged a constant effort to promote literacy and highlighted many successful literacy programs.[33] She coordinated this as a result of her many trips abroad where she witnessed how literacy benefited children in poorer nations.[33]

Women's health

Another of her signature issues were those relating to the health and well being of women. She established the Women's Health and Wellness Initiative and became involved with two major campaigns.

Bush first became involved with The Heart Truth awareness campaign in 2003.[34] It is an organization established by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to raise awareness about heart disease in women, and how to prevent the condition.[35] She serves in the honorary position of ambassador for the program[34] leading the federal government's effort to give women a "wake up call" about the risk of heart disease.[34] She commented on the disease: "Like many women, I assumed heart disease was a man's disease and cancer was what we would fear the most. Yet heart disease kills more women in our country than all forms of cancer combined. When it comes to heart disease, education, prevention, and even a little red dress can save lives."[34] She has undertaken a signature personal element of traveling around the country and talking to women at hospital and community events featuring the experiences of women who live, or had lived, with the condition.[34] This outreach was credited with saving the life of one woman who went to the hospital after experiencing symptoms of a heart attack.[34]

Bush's mother, Jenna Welch, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 78. She endured surgery and currently has no further signs of cancer. Laura Bush has become a breast cancer activist on her mother's behalf[38] through her involvement in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She applauded the foundation's efforts in eliminating cancer and said, "A few short years ago, a diagnosis of breast cancer left little hope of recovery. But thanks to the work of the Komen Foundation... more women and men are beating breast cancer and beating the odds."[38] She used her position to gain international support for the foundation through the Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research of the Americas, an initiative that unites experts from the United States, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico.[39]

A subsidiary of the center, the Jenna Welch Women’s Center, opened in Midland, Texas, on August 10, 2010, to deliver expert medical care to women and their families. Operating in partnership with the Laura Bush Institute, the Jenna Welch Center, named for Bush's mother, strives for excellence in research, education and community outreach.[42]

Popularity and style

Laura's husband, President George W. Bush, is sworn into a second term on January 20, 2005 by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, as Laura Bush and daughters Barbara and Jenna look on.

Laura Bush's approval ratings have consistently ranked very high.[43] In January 2006, a USA Today/CBS/Gallup poll recorded her approval rating at 82 percent and disapproval at 13 percent.[1][44][45] That places Bush as one of the most popular first ladies.[1] Former White House Press SecretaryAri Fleischer said, "She is more popular, and more welcome, in many parts of the country than the president... In races where the moderates are in the most trouble, Laura Bush is the one who can do the most good."[44]

She disagreed with Fox News' Chris Wallace in 2006 when Wallace asked why the American people were beginning to lose confidence in President Bush, saying, "Well, I don't think they are. And I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country, I see people, I see their response to my husband, I see their response to me. There are a lot of difficult challenges right now in the United States... All of those decisions that the President has to make surrounding each one of these very difficult challenges are hard. They're hard decisions to make. And of course some people are unhappy about what some of those decisions are. But I think people know that he is doing what he thinks is right for the United States, that he's doing what he — especially in the war on terror, what he thinks he is obligated to do for the people in the United States, and that is to protect them... When his polls were really high they weren't on the front page."[46]

During the January 2005 second inauguration ceremonies for her husband, Laura Bush was looked highly upon by People magazine, The Washington Post, and others for her elegance and fashion sense.[47] At the inauguration she wore a winter white cashmere dress and matching coat designed by Oscar de la Renta.[48] Following the inauguration were the inaugural galas, to which Bush wore a pale, aqua lace gown, sprinkled with crystals, with long sleeves in a silver blue mist.[48] The tulle gown was also designed for her by de la Renta. According to The Washington Post, "[I]t made her look radiant and glamorous."[48]

Foreign trips

Laura Bush talks with Raphael Lungo of Zambia as a part of her 2007 African trip

During her husband's second term, Bush was more involved in foreign matters. She traveled to numerous countries as a representative of the United States.

As First Lady, she took five goodwill trips to Africa.[49] The purpose of these has mostly been to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and malaria, but Bush has also stressed the need for education and greater opportunities for women.[50] She has taken many other trips to other countries to promote and gain support for President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief;[51] these countries include Zambia (2007),[52]Mozambique (2007),[53]Mali (2007),[54]Senegal (2007),[55] and Haiti (2008).[51]

In mid-2007, she took a trip to Burma where she spoke out in support of the pro-democracy movement, and urged Burmese soldiers and militias to refrain from violence.[56] Later that October, she ventured to the Middle East. Bush said she was in the region in an attempt to improve America's image by highlighting concern for women's health, specifically promoting her breast cancer awareness work with the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research.[56][57] She defined the trip as successful, saying that stereotypes were broken on both sides.[56]

Views on policy

Bush is a Republican and has identified herself with the GOP since her marriage.

When asked about abortion in 2000, Bush said she doesn't believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. She did not comment on whether women had the right to an abortion.[58] She did say, however, that the country should do "what we can to limit the number of abortions, to try to reduce the number of abortions in a lot of ways, and that is, by talking about responsibility with girls and boys, by teaching abstinence, having abstinence classes everywhere in schools and in churches and in Sunday school."[58]

Bush responded to a question during a 2006 interview concerning the Federal Marriage Amendment by calling for elected leaders not to politicize same-sex marriage: "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue... a lot of sensitivity."[59]

On July 12, 2005, while in South Africa, Bush suggested her husband replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman. On October 2, during a private dinner at the White House with his wife, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor.[60] Later that month, after Miers had faced intense criticism, Laura Bush questioned whether the charges were sexist in nature.[61]

On May 11, 2010, during an interview on Larry King Live, Bush was asked about same-sex marriage. She said she views it as a generational issue and said she believes it will be made legal in the future. Bush offered support for the issue by saying, "...when couples are committed to each other and love each other...they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has." Bush referred to her 2000 interview, reaffirming her support for Roe v. Wade: "I think it's important that [abortion] remain legal. Because I think it's important for people - that for medical reasons and, and other reasons."[62]

Awards and honors

During her tenure as the First Lady, Laura Bush received a number of awards and honors. In October 2002, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity honored her in recognition of her efforts on behalf of education[63] and the American Library Association honored her for her years of support to America's libraries and librarians in April 2005.[64] The Progressive Librarians Guild opposed her being honored, because of her support of the USA PATRIOT Act and her cancellation of a poetry forum due to concern that some of the poets would express opposition to the war in Iraq.[65]

Montgomery, Leslie. Were It Not For Grace: Stories From Women After God's Own Heart; Featuring Condoleezza Rice, First Lady Laura Bush, Beth Moore & Others. Laura Bush shares her story about how God has had his hand on her life. ISBN 0-8054-3178-0